{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1310",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1310,
    "subject": "Severian: His Memory",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-12-18T13:35:56+00:00",
    "last": "1998-12-18T13:35:56+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0022-0056@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Parmenter",
        "address": "dan at lec.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-12-18T13:35:56+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Severian: His Memory",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>\nThat's the thing.  If he didn't go on about his perfect memory so much, we\nmight cut him some slack.  But as it is, if Severian is so perfect, what\nalternative do we have but to call him a liar?\n\nHowever, I rather like the idea of a narrator who tells us he's got a\nperfect memory, but who really doesn't.  \n\nI remember on my first read thinking Severian's memory was just a cheap\ntrick to justify a memoir having such great detail.  Now I wonder if maybe\nhis constantly going on about it might be an attempt to convince himself\nof his own perfection."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I have often favored the idea that his memory *is* perfect and that\nthe imperfectly-recalled details may be reflective of the multiple\ntimelines/Severians floating about.  Remember, the non-New Sun\nSeverian did become a walker in the corridors of time.  Isn't it\npossible that his return to Urth (before Severian1's time) subtly\naltered the timestream in certain ways?  In other words, he really\nwould have a perfect memory if there were only one timeline, but since\nwe know there are multiple timelines, this may result in some \"version\ncontrol\" problems.  Severian can be thought of as a combination of the\nhero of \"By His Bootstraps\" (Heinlein) crossed with Borges' Funes.\n\nAmong other things :-)\n\nD"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}